Description
Where is America’s Rust Belt? It’s not quite a geographic region but a linguistic one, first introduced as a concept in 1984 by Walter Mondale. In the modern vernacular, it’s closely associated with the “Post-Industrial Midwest,” and includes Michigan, Ohio, and Pennsylvania, as well as parts of Illinois, Wisconsin, and New York. The region reflects the country’s manufacturing center, which, over the past forty years, has been in decline. In the 2016 election, the Rust Belt’s economic woes became a political talking point, and helped pave the way for a Donald Trump victory.
But the region is neither monolithic nor easily understood. The truth is much more nuanced. Voices From the Rust Belt pulls together a distinct variety of voices from people who call the region home. Voices that emerge from familiar Rust Belt citiesDetroit, Cleveland, Flint, and Buffalo, among othersand observe, with grace and sensitivity, the changing economic and cultural realities for generations of Americans.
The anthology is a collection of the best non-fiction essays published in Belt Magazine, a critically-acclaimed regional magazine, and has been artfully put together by publisher and founder Anne Trubek.
Author Information
Anne Trukbek is the founder and director of Belt Publishing. She is the author of The History and Uncertain Future of Handwriting and A Skeptic’s Guide to Writers’ Houses. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic, Wired, MIT Technology Review, Smithsonian, Slate, Salon, Belt and numerous other publications. A tenured professor at Oberlin College from 1997-2015, she currently resides in Cleveland, Ohio.
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